Beating the heat

Ye gods it's hot. Hotter than most days we had this summer, and isn't it supposed to be nearly October? I am not ready for this! I was in cardigan mode! I'm knitting a scarf and making Christmas cards! On the plus side, it means I get to wear my swishy extra-extra-wide palazzo trousers again. And the oven gloves I washed yesterday have dried in double-quick time.

In other news, we found weevils in all our bags of flour last night, which means we have to chuck all the open stuff on our shelves, clean clean clean, get some storage jars for flour etc. and hope the little buggers don't come back. Urrrrgh. I am horrified. At least it apparently has nothing to do with whether your kitchen is clean or dirty - not that our kitchen is especially clean, it's just nice to know I didn't bring this upon myself.

My little mimic

Having the Bat around is like looking in a mirror sometimes. I didn't realise just how often I say "There!" when I've finished dealing with something - changing her nappy, wiping her nose, putting on her socks - until she started saying it too. Now I can't do anything without having it punctuated with a quiet little "Dere!"

Of course, it can be more embarrassing to have my behaviour reproduced in public - like the time she demonstrated to Batgran exactly how Mummy slouches down on the sofa and grabs the TV control. :-/

Some very belated photos

OK, so it was two months ago now that we went to Avebury for the day (whaaaaat?) but I've finally managed to download the photos, and I want to put them up here because it was just such a nice day out. So here we go! I've done them small because there are so many, but I *think* you can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Madam is getting choosy about her meals

I should definitely not have bragged about Bat's capacity to eat anything and everything. She has got a lot pickier recently. It's not that she seriously dislikes the food, it's just that she may or may not choose to eat it on any given day. So after being obsessed with raisins for months, she now just throws them all on the floor whenever she's given them. The same with toast - she used to scoff it happily and now she turns up her nose more often than not. She had an unbuttered crumpet the other day and loved it, but when we tried it again last night, I had to coax her to finish it and she still ended up feeding me half. The banana fixation is still holding strong but I don't know what we'll do when that's over.

I mean, it's perfectly reasonable if you think about it from her point of view - I'm not always in the mood for a particular food, either - but since she can't tell me what she wants yet (unless it's a "marmer"), we end up throwing away quite a lot of food that she's rejected before we hit on the right thing. Her diet ends up pretty well balanced overall, though not at every meal or even every day. Today her breakfast was a banana, some cold chicken and a bit of the chocolate orange cake I made last night.

I've got a ten pound note burning a hole in my pocket so I may take her out for lunch, either to the pub or the Sainsbury's cafe. She's often better about eating when we're out, I guess because there's stuff to distract her from exerting her mighty power of NO. And I'm pretty sure I deserve a treat after dealing with her through a really whiny week.

September

I really like this time of year. I suspect it's partly because I still think of it as a new school year and a new start, even though it's four years since I graduated university! I also like the changing weather, where we might still get some hot sunshine but I definitely need to know where my cardigan is. In another few weeks the leaves start changing, and then we get Hallowe'en and Bonfire Night, my birthday in November (obviously a very important event), the winter solstice and finally Christmas, which I love and am very excited to celebrate with the Bat. I do miss the light evenings, but the darkness only really starts getting me down in January and February.

The one downside of September is the SPIDERS. Augh. The great big hairy brown ones that keep themselves decently hidden all summer so I can pretend they're not there. Suddenly they come out and start roaming my walls looking for a shag. I am getting less phobic and can tolerate small spiders now, but these big buggers are too much. Urrrgh.

General update

Owl had last week off work, and as usual all our grand plans (days out, take the Bat swimming, sort out the flat) didn't happen. But we did have a lovely time sitting around together and I got lots of writing done, so that's all right.

On the Tuesday we took Bat to the optician to follow up the initial "yes, she's a bit squinty" diagnosis we got a couple of months ago. She had to have eye drops to dilate her pupils, which she did not love, and then little lights shone into her eyes which she hated. The guy got a good look in the end, though, and concluded that things weren't as bad as we thought - no sign yet of long- or short-sightedness. I think the woman we saw before jumped to conclusions when Bat failed to look at a picture of a boat on the other side of the room, when actually I don't think Bat had learnt the word "boat" at that point and so didn't know what she was looking for. If it had been a cat or a banana, we'd have been well away. Anyway, we're just monitoring the squint for now and we'll take her back in January.

Other than the medical stuff, we got to see lots of Owl's family. The new profile pic to your right is from the first weekend of Owl's holiday, when we went to a 65th birthday barbecue and had a great time. In the evening we got to see a guy doing a one-man Midsummer Night's Dream, but Bat was tired and we had to go before the band came on. Then the next day we were at another family barbecue, which has inspired us to try making baked sweet potatoes ourselves. They were fabulous.

Now Owl is back to work and so it's back to reality for me too, being alone with Bat during the day. She's going through a very whiny stage. Why is Mummy being so slow with my breakfast, whine whine whine. Why can't she see I didn't want THAT breakfast, grizzle grouch moan. *fling food on floor* Get me out of the high chair this instant, woman! Then when I do it's WAAAAAH, why are you stealing the rest of my toast? *seize toast and stuff into mouth, glaring tearfully*